There are moments when we would like very much to help someone we love deeply and we just can’t seem to do a thing. Either circumstances prevent us from drawing closer or else the person has shut off to any gesture of solidarity and support.

So, all we have left is love. In those moments when everything is useless, we can still love - without expecting anything in return, any exchanges or thanks.

If we can manage to act in this way, the energy of love begins to transform the universe around us. When this energy appears, you always perform your work successfully.

“Time does not change men. Will power does not change men. Love changes men,” says Henry Drummond.

I read in the newspaper about a child in Brasília who was brutally beaten by his parents. As a result, she lost her body movements and her power of speech.

Admitted to the Base Hospital, she was taken care of by a nurse who said to her every day: “I love you.” Although the doctors guaranteed that she could not hear and that the nurse’s efforts were all to no avail, she kept repeating: “I love you, don’t you forget that.”

Three weeks later on, the child had recovered her movements. Four weeks later, she started to talk and smile again. The nurse never gave any interviews and the newspapers did not publish her name - but let it be registered here, so that we will never forget: love is a great healer.

Love transforms, love heals. But at times love builds mortal traps and ends up destroying the person who has decided to surrender completely. What strange sentiment is this that deep down is the only reason for us to go on living and struggling and trying to make things better?

It would irresponsible of me to try to define it because, like any other human being, all I can do is feel it. Thousands of books have been written about it, plays put on at the theater, films produced, poems scribbled, sculptures carved in wood or marble - and even so, all that the artist can convey is the idea of a feeling, not the feeling itself.

But I have learned that this feeling is present in the small things and manifests itself in the most insignificant of attitudes we take, so we must always have love in mind when we act or fail to act.

Picking up the phone and uttering that affectionate word we have been putting off. Opening the door and showing in someone who needs our help. Accepting a job. Leaving a job. Making that decision that we were putting off for later. Apologizing for a mistake we made that will not leave us in peace. Claiming a right that we have. Opening an account at the florist’s - which is more important than the jeweler’s. Playing the music loud when your loved one is far away and lower the volume when he or she is nearby. Knowing how to say “yes” and “no” - because love involves all of man’s energies. Discovering a sport that can be practiced by two. Not following any prescription, not even those listed in this paragraph - because love calls for creativity.

And when none of this is possible, when all that is left is loneliness, then remember a story that a reader once sent me:

A rose dreamed day and night about having the company of the bees, but none ever came to land on her petals.

But the flower went on dreaming: during many a long night she imagined a sky with lots of bees flying towards her and kissing her tenderly. In this way she managed to resist to the next day, when she opened again to the sunlight.

One night the moon, knowing how lonely the rose felt, asked her:

- Aren’t you tired of waiting?

- Perhaps. But I have to struggle on.

- Why?

- Because if I don’t open up, I will wither.

At moments when loneliness seems to crush all beauty, the only way to resist is to keep yourself open.

You can analyze this mystery and look for reason and causes, but you will never do anymore than take the life out of the experience. Just as life itself is more than the sum of the bones and muscles and electrical impulses in the body, love is more than the sum and the interests and attraction and commonalities that two people share. And just as life itself is a gift that comes and goes in its time, so too, the coming of love must be taken as an unfathomable gift that cannot be questioned in its ways.

Sometimes, hopefully at least once in your life, the gift of love will come to you in full flower, and you will take hold of it and celebrate it in all inexpressible beauty.

This is the dream we all share. More often, it will come and take hold of you, celebrate you for a brief moment, then move on.

When this happens to young people, they too often try to grasp the love and hold it to then, refusing to see that it is a gift that is freely given and a gift that just as freely moves away. When they fall out of love or the person they love feels the spirit of love leaving, they try desperately to reclaim the love that is lost rather than accepting the gift for what it was, then moving on.

They want answer where there are no answers.

They want to know what is wrong in them that makes the other person no longer love them, or they try to get their lover to change, thinking that if some small things were different, love would bloom again. They blame their circumstances and say that if they go far away and start a new life together, their love will grow.

Then try anything to give meaning to what has happened. But there is no meaning beyond the love itself, and until they accept its own mysterious ways, they live in a sea of misery.

You need to know this about love, and to accept it. You need to treat what it brings you with kindness. If you find yourself in love with someone who does not love you, be gentle with yourself. There is nothing wrong with you.

Love just didn’t choose to rest in the other person's heart.

If you find someone else in love with you and don't love him, feel honored that love came and called at your door, but gently refuse the gift you cannot return. Do not take advantage; do not cause pain. How you deal with love is how you deal with you and all our hearts feel the same pains and joys, even if our lives and ways are different.

If you fall in love with another, and he falls in love with you, and then love chooses to leave, do not try to reclaim it or to assess blame.

Let it go. There is a reason and there is a meaning. You will know in time.

Remember that you don't choose love. Love chooses you.

All you can really do is accept it for all it's mystery when it comes into your life. Feel the way it feels you to overflowing, then reach out and give it away. Give it back to the person who brought it alive in you. Give it to others who deem it poor in spirit. Give it to the world around you in anyway you can.

There is where many lovers go wrong. Having been so long without love, they understand love only as a need. They see their hearts as empty places that will be filled by love, and they begin to look at love as something that flows to them rather than from them. The first blush of new love is filled to overflowing, but as their love cools, they revert, they revert to seeing their love as a need.

They cease to be someone who generates love and instead becomes someone who seeks love. They forget the secret of love is that it is a gift, and that it can be made to grow only by giving it away.

Remember this, and keep it to your heart. Love has its own time, its own seasons, and its own reason for coming and going. You cannot bribe it or coerce it, or reason it into saying.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARION!!! :)

At CenterStage karaoke.

Earlier that day, I gave Erik (Marion's designated driver) the props: blindfold, megaheadphones and iPod.
Basta Erik brought Marion to CenterStage when almost everyone was there. He DID NOT know where he was! Galing! :))
Ang kulit-kulit pa niya when we were going up na. He knew si Erik lang kasama niya. So tawa na kame ng tawa ni Von.
Muntik pa siya madapa. Then inside the elevator, he was soooo noisy kasi nga may HEADPHONES siya and he was listening to loud music.
Tapos kapa pa siya ng kapa, eh may kasama pa kaming strangers in the elevator.
We had to tell them that he had a surprise party :))
Tapos SURPRISE!!! 

Nagwawala na sila sa PARE KO =))


YAAAAAAY. :) Happy 20th!!! 


SUPER THANK YOUUU TO EVERYONE WHO WENT! :D it wouldn't be successful without all of youuuu! :D
aaronallenallisterseanmarkkennethgabitanjigselaineeleoraffyerikvonsiralichijoboyonirichcyrusadolfpaomaanahyamikecandyginoachimitch!
ERIK: thank you nilibang mo si marion kasi ang tagal namin. balita ko uminom pa kayo! and thanks for bringing him sa CenterStage na wala siyang alam :))
SIR ALI and CHI: thanks cos since you guys knew the owner, the management was EXTRA NICE! and we got the room free for the rest of the night cos nasira yung sounds thinggy. I bet if di niyo kilala yung owner, they wouldn't extend it for the whoooooole night.
VON: thank you for being the earliest! :)) and sinamahan mo ko sa baba, if not, namatay nako sa kaba! at sorry alam kong nahawa ka sa kaba ko bago dumating si Marion. hahaha. and thank you ikaw nag-isip at nag-ayos kung ano gagawin ng mga tao pagdating niya. :)
RAF: thank you since gift mo kay Marion yung 5 (or more) bottles of alcohol, hindi ganun kamahal yung bill! YAY! and thanks for being my walking wallet and accountant. :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAR! :D